Redistricting battles in Texas and California are once again drawing national headlines. The maps, lawsuits, and political outrage look familiar, but there’s a deeper lesson here for Republicans: it’s time to stop playing defense and start wielding political power with principle and conviction.
In California, Democrats have spent decades perfecting the art of entrenching their rule. From independent “commissions” packed with ideological allies, to lawsuits designed to chip away at GOP strongholds, their every move is calculated to consolidate power. Meanwhile in Texas, Republican leaders have often acted as if their job is to referee rather than govern—drawing maps that try to appease the left, satisfy federal judges, and mute cries of “unfairness.”
But fairness, as defined by Democrats, is a one-way street. They scream about “gerrymandering” when Republicans protect their voters and actually want districts to reflect the population (see these stats from Rep. Marlin Stutzman), but cheer when California systematically rigs the system to cement Democrat dominance. The result is a structural advantage for the left that has nothing to do with the “will of the people” and everything to do with raw power.
Republicans should not shy away from this reality. Politics is, by definition, the contest for governing power. To refuse to wield it themselves at least for equilibrium when entrusted by voters is not humility—it is negligence. Texans didn’t elect Republicans to hand Democrats a foothold in Congress; they elected them to represent conservative principles and protect the values of the Lone Star State.
This doesn’t mean abandoning principle. On the contrary, it means acting with clarity about why redistricting matters. District lines are not just about partisanship. They shape whether Congress will defend life, liberty, the rule of law, and constitutional limits on government. They determine whether power remains closer to the people or is centralized in Washington. To draw districts that dilute conservative voices in the name of “fairness” is to deny voters the very representation they chose when they registered to vote and then exercised that right at the ballot box.
Democrats have no qualms about using every tool to entrench their worldview. Republicans, by contrast, often trip over themselves to appear “above the fray.” But politics is not a seminar in civics—it is the real-world arena where laws are made, freedoms are either preserved or eroded, and the future of the country is shaped.
If California Democrats can redraw maps to their liking, Texas Republicans can and must do the same. Not as an act of vengeance, but as an act of stewardship. When voters give a majority, the job of legislators is not to surrender ground but to govern decisively, ensuring their constituents are heard and their principles defended.
Republicans must finally realize: Apologizing for power doesn’t win respect. It just guarantees defeat.
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